Letter to the Honorable Patrick R. Donahoe, Postmaster General and CEO, USPS

Today, MPA – The Association of Magazine Media, in conjunction with the Direct Marketing Association, the Association for Postal Commerce and the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers sent an open letter to Postmaster General Pat Donahoe, urging the Postmaster General to once and for all withdraw its request for a $2.3 billion above inflation postage rate increase. This latest request, the last gasp of the hard-fought exigency case MPA and its allies litigated last year, if approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission and implemented by the Postal Service, would result in postage increases over and above the announced inflation-capped postage increases scheduled for January 22, 2012.

The Postmaster General has regularly assured MPA and its members that the Postal Service does not intend to raise postage rates above inflation in 2012, but the Postal Service’s lawyers continue to pursue an exigency increase aggressively at the PRC. As long as the Postal Service continues to pursue this course of action, mailers will be forced to plan for an exigent postage increase. USPS should withdraw the exigent case, thereby showing mailers, through its actions, that it does not want postage increases higher than inflation.

Click below to download the full text pdf of the letter to Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe.